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Solo PotD Wizard: How viable?

Endarire

Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:28 PM

Endarire

(1) Prestidigitator

Members

32 posts

Greetings, all!

How viable is a solo PotD Wizard? I assume you'll be sneaking a lot for exploration EXP to get your level up and generally avoiding fighting in the early game. When it comes to killing things, that... seems best left to an expert on the subject.

Concordance

Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:42 PM

Concordance

(2) Evoker

Members

91 posts

If you're willing to take mid-dungeon breaks to rest at an inn and restock on camping supplies, you don't need much in ways of weapons, armor or strategy. If you can affort to rest every 1-2 fights, the Wizard can lower resistances on, incapacitate and wipe the floor with roomfulls of pretty much anything.

Ceranai

Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:42 PM

Ceranai

(5) Thaumaturgist

Members

570 posts

Greetings, all!

How viable is a solo PotD Wizard? I assume you'll be sneaking a lot for exploration EXP to get your level up and generally avoiding fighting in the early game. When it comes to killing things, that... seems best left to an expert on the subject.

What should people attempting this know beforehand?

You might wanna pm @iamknownastherat, he was commenting in my solo PoTD tips (not exploits) thread and he was doing wizard, think he was just short of act 3.

I can answer any general questions but IMO wizards arnt the best class to do this, their base stats are garbage so you are gonna be relying quite heavily on your spells hitting.

Im a bit biased but might i suggest the chanter instead, they have better base stats and get a smaller range of spells but can cast them as many times as they like. .

In terms of EXP gain if you look at the numbers pretty much 99% of your exp comes from quests, I mean people always say max out mechanics for the trap exp but that exp is insignificant compared to quests, also you get much more exp from main story quests generally. You should know that a lot of your fights are going to come down to dice rolls, wizards have good burst and CC but if they miss you are totally screwed most fights. I got as far as level 4 with my battle mage before I decided he wasnt worth it.

In a party your wizard can get away with garbage tier stats but in solo play low deflection means you will get shredded if you get hit.

Anyway its always good to see another soloer so give it a try , jsut be aware that solo play is quite different than party play in that certain things become far more deadly (eg traps are often a game over screen)

Ceranai

Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:43 PM

Ceranai

(5) Thaumaturgist

Members

570 posts

If you're willing to take mid-dungeon breaks to rest at an inn and restock on camping supplies, you don't need much in ways of weapons, armor or strategy. If you can affort to rest every 1-2 fights, the Wizard can lower resistances on, incapacitate and wipe the floor with roomfulls of pretty much anything.

Not if they miss

Also from my experience they require a LOT of strategy in solo play because they are so squishy, yea you can blast everything to hell if you can get off all your spells but you wont live long enough to do so if you just stand there

MadDemiurg

Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:51 PM

MadDemiurg

(8) Warlock

Members

1010 posts

Wizards ARE experts at killing things. Not so much at surviving things, but with the right spells and abilities that is also not much of a problem. Their performance is not as stable as chanters, so they are riskier for Ironman, but they are still one of the better classes to do this. Later on you can get enough accuracy to have 100% hit rate with appropriate spells, so luck reliance is negated too for the most part.

Ceranai

Posted 14 April 2015 - 02:53 PM

Ceranai

(5) Thaumaturgist

Members

570 posts

Wizards ARE experts at killing things. Not so much at surviving things, but with the right spells and abilities that is also not much of a problem. Their performance is not as stable as chanters, so they are riskier for Ironman, but they are still one of the better classes to do this. Later on you can get enough accuracy to have 100% hit rate with appropriate spells, so luck reliance is negated too for the most part.

Fair enough. I am curious to play a wizard at level 12 but i wanted to play him as a battlemage and looking at the classes side by side i think chanters are much better for front line spellcasters

knownastherat

Posted 14 April 2015 - 03:28 PM

knownastherat

(6) Magician

Members

793 posts

How viable they are is matter of testing it for couple of hours.

Say till stronghold because after that there are lots of options and generally easier leveling if one knows where to go and when. I am not even doing Ranga at the Compass no more still hit level 4 and have enough cash for belt, figurine and about 2k left. . Stealth 5 Mech 3. Looting and getting exp from Raedric seems safest and efficient. The only risky encounter are Bears, which give exp instead of Ranga, but by then I had figurine.

This relatively small investment will inform on class better than any thread here imo

Greetings, all!

How viable is a solo PotD Wizard? I assume you'll be sneaking a lot for exploration EXP to get your level up and generally avoiding fighting in the early game. When it comes to killing things, that... seems best left to an expert on the subject.

What should people attempting this know beforehand?

You might wanna pm @iamknownastherat, he was commenting in my solo PoTD tips (not exploits) thread and he was doing wizard, think he was just short of act 3.

I can answer any general questions but IMO wizards arnt the best class to do this, their base stats are garbage so you are gonna be relying quite heavily on your spells hitting.

Im a bit biased but might i suggest the chanter instead, they have better base stats and get a smaller range of spells but can cast them as many times as they like. ;).

In terms of EXP gain if you look at the numbers pretty much 99% of your exp comes from quests, I mean people always say max out mechanics for the trap exp but that exp is insignificant compared to quests, also you get much more exp from main story quests generally. You should know that a lot of your fights are going to come down to dice rolls, wizards have good burst and CC but if they miss you are totally screwed most fights. I got as far as level 4 with my battle mage before I decided he wasnt worth it.

In a party your wizard can get away with garbage tier stats but in solo play low deflection means you will get shredded if you get hit.

Anyway its always good to see another soloer so give it a try :), jsut be aware that solo play is quite different than party play in that certain things become far more deadly (eg traps are often a game over screen)

Yeah, I put that on hold. At level 9 I had most of the cool stuff and it did not feel it was gonna get harder, rather the opposite. I am playing Fire God now. Cant give up on the idea of melee Wizard so I am tying something else now. The one on hold was viable in a sense that she was capable of wining the fights she needed to progress in game. The only two encounters I could not beat, at the level I got them, are documented in the solo thread pinned at the top of the forum.

So yes early game explore and hoard, win couple of test fights and head for two difficult, and different, fights which will test how well you understand the class and whether or not its something you like.

I am Catharsis

Posted 15 April 2015 - 03:51 AM

I am Catharsis

(2) Evoker

Members

70 posts

To be honest, the global progression of the game is probably viable with every class as long as you can use well enough all the small mechanics of the game (summonings, traps, scrolls, bottleneck and so on...).

The only thing i'm a bit worried by playing Wizard solo is "how are you gonna defeat the last boss?" as long as you don't have any sustain mechanics nor tanking ones.

MadDemiurg

Posted 15 April 2015 - 04:31 AM

MadDemiurg

(8) Warlock

Members

1010 posts

To be honest, the global progression of the game is probably viable with every class as long as you can use well enough all the small mechanics of the game (summonings, traps, scrolls, bottleneck and so on...).

The only thing i'm a bit worried by playing Wizard solo is "how are you gonna defeat the last boss?" as long as you don't have any sustain mechanics nor tanking ones.

To be honest last boss is pretty much an auto win with wizard, its the smallest of his problems.

That's 110 effective accuracy. Some racials/items/additional debuffs can get you even more. Headsman has 70 will. Go figure...

I did't solo with a wiz to that point yet, but I tried to duo with my main and wiz at level 12 and wiz wins the fight without even trying and no need to actually tank (not that you can't with proper spells). You don't even need normal solo tactics for that fight like traps etc (You have gaze yourself). Actually it's lower levels that are more problematic since spells are few and a bit random at start.

MadDemiurg

Posted 15 April 2015 - 05:14 AM

MadDemiurg

(8) Warlock

Members

1010 posts

I can probably make a vid with duo wiz, although I would prefer to wait till I get there solo. If you want to minimize risk you'll have to kite/split as normal. Otherwise you can just CC upfront. Have you seen Gaze of Agradan spell? If it at least grazes you win.